• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

I wish to ask about the discounted travel that will come from this deal. On Monday I visited a local scheme for lone parents, run by Reed Partnership, and one of the advisers told me that one of the barriers for lone parents, especially to get back into work, is the cost of travel, especially as working tax credits often do not come for about three to four months, depending on the length of time that government takes. I was wondering, if there is some slack in this system, whether the scheme could look at those groups who are returning...

• Question by: Mike Tuffrey
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

Has the Department for Work and Pensions specifically cleared this scheme and said that there is no threat to anybody losing their benefit as a result of getting this additional benefit?

• Question by: Richard Barnes
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

Mr Mayor, 38% of the people of Venezuela live below the poverty line. Do you think they have got a good aspect of this deal, or have they really got the sticky end of the wicket, paying £15 million a year for Peter Hendy to go on visits?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

You talked about the GLA/TfL group doing it. Will the documentation be available to us for scrutiny? What is the timeline of this agreement? Can it all be circulated with full copies of all papers, because it is being done in our name as well?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

I just quoted you a figure: 48,000 out of my constituency covering the three boroughs of Islington, Hackney and Waltham Forest. Two of those are certainly in the top ten of the most deprived London boroughs. What are we going to do if the figures reach over 250,000?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

I am sure the significant numbers of income support claimants in London will welcome the agreement that you have signed with the Venezuelan oil company. I think I have about 48,000 of those people in my constituency and they will be the first to benefit. You talk about the 250,000 people who would receive the half fare. How are we going to manage that? Have you thought through the hows yet?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

Your TfL colleague, Professor Stephen Glaister, an expert in Congestion Charging, albeit on the pro side of the argument, has been giving his opinion in the Guardian yesterday - no doubt you read what he had to say - when he stated that, in his opinion, `The majority of road congestion is caused by locally resident people and businesses. So if you give out discounts it will devalue the whole point of the exercise.' Is there a move at Transport for London to remove the discount?

• Question by: Brian Coleman
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

Are you happy that the Capita payment system is robust enough to handle it, as it took an hour and four attempts to pay my Congestion Charge on Monday?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

People will say why did you not use the opportunity to bring forward the plans for the hybrid buses? Here you have an opportunity and yet still we are going to have to wait until 2012. The environmentalists will say that one of things you have promised is to reduce oil consumption, so why could we not then have something around that?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 21 February 2007

Obviously the jury is still out on whether the western extension to the Congestion Charge is working or not. How many penalty charge notices has TfL issued in the first two days of operation?